csf

Of those, only MyBB and Eklarte are free systems. Cost is going to be a huge filter. Anything at cost isn't really in the same bracket.

As FBI was getting at, design might be another filter for competitive comparison, which would eliminate that list entirely as any real competition. (They're competing with each other, design-wise, but not with Flarum.)

I think Flarum is looking pretty good in the market, if it just plants the flag with a stable.

Liberty

csf

I was wondering about this too, because I know the Textpattern CMS community relies on FluxBB heavily. Their entire history is written and archived in their boards, and highly valued. They are aware of Flarum, but reluctant at this point to migrate to it because of the lack of progress and clear roadmap. (Yes, yes... I'm told the gears are turning.)

It occurs to me that a boon for Flarum is to get existing OS communities using FluxBB to migrate to it sooner than later (which means getting a stable out the door sooner than later), because those communities, which have skilled devs, generally take loving interest in the communication tool they use. As a result, Flarum might see more core code contributions, more extensions development, and more feedback in general about Flarum's direction (smart feedback about sensible code, not feature requests). I'm not saying there aren't smart devs here. I'm saying there could be more smart devs here through more devs in general by getting those key FluxBB communities.

What can Flarum do to get their attention and entice them over from FluxBB to Flarum? From a "marketing" angle, Flarum should be thinking about that. Targeting copy in the website (i.e. speaking to those communities directly as one such audience). Better documentation (both dev and user docs). More regular blog posts. Better use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, whatever)... Things that other members of Flarum's "team" can do besides devs themselves. If you just rely on these boards and a static website, you won't get far with reaching those audiences quickly. But you all need to communicate to ensure the right message is getting out and the documentation is current and accurate, as examples of team harmony. Of course, on the dev side of things, they need to get that migrator developed and working sharp.

I've seen a few people from the Textpattern community interacting in older discussions here. One being Textpattern's lead dev (he didn't identify himself as such in the conversation), for example, who was having an exchange with Franz about code. Another, a long-time community member and forum moderator, was asking about Textile support (Textpattern's forum has used Textile for many years. The CMS too, though in the upcoming 4.6 release an author will be able to choose Textile or Markdown on a per article basis). And another who runs a Textpattern sites/themes project, who temporarily tested Flarum for that community. In all cases, the conversations weren't going well, but the Textpattern community will have to make a decision eventually.

Textpattern aside, there are surely other OS communities using FluxBB. Court them before they choose a competitor without know you exist or care to have them onboard.

FBI

I think with the same UI, competitor only Discourse and Vanilla

meetdilip

NodeBB has 1.1 currently. No major release in waiting. I do not know about Discourse or Vanilla. Do they have any major release in waiting ?

Master-Antonio

Nodebb now is stable.
Flarum is really good but is not stable and missing many features, it is immature.
When they will add the the functionality promises in these eight months i will change from nodebb to flarum.

csf

My experience is different. I've been kicking the poop out of Flarum for many weeks now, and I find it pretty solid and feature-sufficient. As an admin and user, there are only two big things missing that we (CSF) need for our community right now!

User management, namely the ability to easily find/see what user accounts exist, and bring the hammer down on one, if necessary.

Email digests, so members don't have to remember to regularly visit the boards to see if new content was posted — because they won't — and that really hurts growth/interactivity in the early life of a community.

Both are essential features, but missing.

There are a couple of other things that I would like to see addressed soonish too, but are not blockers, and I'd expect to see these come in later stable releases:

A fix to this site identity problem when using a global site header like we are, which is really harming our brand identity in outgoing email notifications.

I know there may be some bugs I'm not aware of, and anything regarding security should be dealt with, for sure, but as far work-horse usability goes, it's pretty solid. Beyond those things mentioned, we're happy to cruise and use the system while waiting for the rest of good things to come.

Liberty

csf I can't get over how well done FluxBB on Textpattern has been modified to look; it's amazing and inspiring.

I agree with your previous point as well. Although Flarum is a new competitor to a long list of available (and stable) forum software, you really have to compare it to other free options. XenForo, IP.Board and Burning Board should be categorised as a paid for alternative but not listed in the same class. But as the topic states, they are still a competitor regardless.

There is no doubt that Flarum already has a large fan base but any more will only improve its foundations. Everyone is waiting for a stable version to hit the shelves so until then, I am more than happy to use the beta software. Having said that, larger communities and ones that rely on their forum will wait it out until a stable version does eventually hit.

It's almost there, I can smell it. And hopefully in time for a new project I have already started planning in the last couple of weeks.

meetdilip

Personally, I would have used Flarum on http://APPEN.pw if Flarum were stable. There is not much Burning Board offers than Flarum. But the bugs are currently at an annoying stage, and I do not want to take the headache of updating through beta versions.

Other things I would need are plugin for Google Analytics, Adsense.

charles

Discourse and NodeBB should be included in the first post as they are the main competitors to Flarum in my opinion.

meetdilip

charles I added on in development / will be released in future software in the list. Other than IPB 4.1 , all others are work in progress, just like Flarum.

meetdilip

I have updated the first post with Discourse 1.7 as it is in beta stage and may come to market by the time Flarum goes stable. A worthy competitor, I hope.

Update :

Why filter out NodeBB, the only other main competitor. Added NodeBB as well to the first post.

Mortiferr

Discourse and NodeBB are the only competitors in my opinion. Each has their own draw.

Discourse is the most mature and has the most features. However, you pay for it with rather complicated and expensive setup. It is very resource intensive for a forum software and complicated to alter.

NodeBB I don't know a lot about it but it seems to be relatively mature but I'm not a fan of the design decisions of its developers and it seems a little cluttered.

Flarum is the easier and most cheap hosting and resource wise. It has probably the least number of features but it is the newest and the most promising.